Solidworks doesn't run on Vista! 1

[gregjwilson]

A guy in my office just got a new tablet PC with Vista. He got Solidworks installed, but it won't run.
Solidworks says its a video driver problem.
Anyone using Solidworks with Vista?

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

I think the trick is run SW under the XP compatabilty mode.


SW07-SP3.1
SW06-SP5.1

 

[SBaugh]

SW has a BETA version of SW for Vista... it has numerous bugs in it though. Problem is all the VC drivers are in beta and none of them can be certified by SW. SW suggests that users wait until SW08 before upgrading to Vista.

I don't know if that will work or not CBL... but it might. SW told me that if a user installs SW07 32 onto Vista the install might finish, but SW will not run on it at all. If you have vista SW installed and you try to install the SW07 XP version it will totally hose your Vista install and you will have to start over.

There are to many problems with vista still... Its a neat OS, but my parents got a new computer on it and its slow... Hopefully some patches will help when they are available.

Its always helpful before making purchases to check out what is supported and what isn't... if you don't check their website, then at least call your VAR.

Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

faq731-376

 

[Theophilus]

A long time ago I was stung in getting the latest OS (Windows 2000 Professional at the time). Nifty, strong system (compared with NT), but the headache and resulting expense was in no way worth it.

What are the biggest problems in making the switch? You cannot get drivers now for certain pieces of hardware and you cannot get drivers ever for lots of other pieces of hardware (such as existing printers or scanners). So at best, you'll be able to get some drivers for some hardware someday. I don't see how you can build a reliable system on that sort of unknown.

When I bought the system I mentioned above, it took a long time to find a CD burner that would work with Win2000. I finally found one from HP that said "works with Windows 2000". (Sound familiar?) Well, there was an important problem. I thought that label meant that I could go home and install the burner and be ready to roll. Not so. I would have to call HP and request a CD with the drivers--and pay them to send me the disc. The drivers were not available as a free download and never would be. Nice. When would the disc of drivers come? Four to six weeks. Nice again. So I cannot give a client any of files on a CD, since my burner was useless. To add to that, when the CD finally came, the drivers weren't stable and the burner never worked reliably (would often burn coasters and would recognize a CD was inserted only three out of five times).

That's only one of the frustrations I had and with Vista they go just as deep, but you probably have more "hardware" items now that you had in 2000--which means you can expect greater headaches today than then.

With SolidWorks, the graphic drivers are extremely important. Make sure you KNOW you can get stable drivers for your card--for SolidWorks--and for Vista--before making the switch. Then there's also the OpenGL problem that Vista has (as in I don't think Vista uses it)--so your time with SolidWorks in Vista will be extremely slow and unstable until another way of displaying graphics in SolidWorks on Vista can be developed. Don't hold your breath. ..



Jeff Mowry

http://www.industrialdesignhaus.com

Reason trumps all. And awe transcends reason.

 

[RawheadRex]

Hi Guys,

Just another bit of potentially useful info regarding Vista and SolidWorks 2007. The pre-release version that is available now DOES NOT work w/ any of the 64bit flavors of Vista. SolidWorks has an FAQ out which states this officially but apparently this point is still a bit obscure. Don't know if that helps anyone but I thought it worth sharing as I have been making it a point of telling this to customers who call me BEFORE investing in a Vista box. As for the people who do not fall into that category I have to be blunt and tell them not to hold their breath.

Cheer,


Chris Gervais
Application Engineer
CSWP, CSWST

 

[Theophilus]

Thanks, Chris. At this point, I see no reason to upgrade my OS if it's not 64-bit and capable of running SW within that environment. So that's certainly worth knowing.



Jeff Mowry

http://www.industrialdesignhaus.com

Reason trumps all. And awe transcends reason.